Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends
Apple Intel ad a ripoff of Star Trek First Contact?
I don't want to add fire to the Postal Service/Apple Intel ad controversy, but a keen eyed observer notes that the Postal Service video is a ripoff of a scene in Star Trek: First Contact, therefore Apple isn't just ripping off a rock and roll band but a cultural icon.
Now, before you firing your commenting fingers please note that this is a joke, and an attempt to point out how ridiculous this whole issue has gotten. Now you make feel free to flame me all you like.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mark said 3:39PM on 1-23-2006
FLAME!
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Mark said 3:40PM on 1-23-2006
no, just kidding. i think you're absoultely correct in this post.
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Kris said 3:45PM on 1-23-2006
no no no, its a rip-off of 2001.
Open the iPod-bay doors, Hal.
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Dan Siercks said 3:53PM on 1-23-2006
"an attempt to point out how ridiculous this whole issue has gotten"?
Apple took the same director to shoot the same video. I understand TUAW has issues with DRM, but do you have any respect for intellectual property? I'm sure you'd have some objection if Calacanis would let me use the TUAW template on a seperate domain to try to sell my Apple products.
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LD said 3:54PM on 1-23-2006
I don't think the issue is ridiculous. I thought it was at first, but then I watched the ad and the video a couple times. The ad is very blatantly a direct rip-off of the video.
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bob said 3:59PM on 1-23-2006
Dan, whose intellectual property. Is it the director's or the musicians? Do actors have intellectual property of a movie or does the director?
My vote is for the director.
If the director was hired by the same person and produced the same result (or close result) then yay for a person that has consistency.
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LD said 4:09PM on 1-23-2006
bob, that's a legitimate question and one I think the courts should explore. That's why I don't think it's a ridiculous situation. There are a lot of legitimate legal questions that should be answered.
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Charles said 4:21PM on 1-23-2006
Is it a 'rip-off' when it's done by the same directors, in the same 'spirit' as the original (that of the cold, yet mesmerizing wonders of modern technology). When there's nothing new under the sun, and imitation is flattery, especially when it's tasteful, can you still use such harsh terms as 'rip-off'? Is DJ sampling a 'rip-off'? Are (good) movie remakes a rip-off? Synth pop is over 20 years old, I don't hear anyone complaining about Postal Service 'ripping off' the thousands of new wave/darkwave synthpop bands that came before.
This issue is dead. And stupid. Just like the ministore issue.
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Nathan said 4:32PM on 1-23-2006
I think part of the issue, for the band, is that they (or their label or whatever) paid for an original video. For the director to recycle the ideas, down to the individual shots, is sure cost effective for him. But it changes the value of the initial video. You could argue that it's given TPS attention they wouldn't have otherwise have gotten--that they gained from this. Or you could argue the opposite, or that that isn't even the question. It is a legal question: not dead or stupid, however much or little it interests us personally.
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DrWho said 4:54PM on 1-23-2006
I think the band's movie ripped off 2001.
This whole debate is retarded
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reed said 5:09PM on 1-23-2006
i would side with the director as owner of the intellectual property. look at Michael Bay. i am not saying he is good or bad, but in "The Island" commentary he says that people talk about how he rips off his own idea from another one of his movies. or look at the film composer James Horner, who has quite a few times used his own musical motifs in a variety of different movies.
i like the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" and i LOVE Apple. and every time i see either the video or the commercial i pause to watch.
i think, though, that i like the commercial more because its the voice of Jack Bauer!!! heh.
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AJ Kandy said 5:20PM on 1-23-2006
If any of you have ever rented the Directors' Series set of DVDs (Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Jonathan Glazer, etc.) you notice that video and ad directors constantly recycle their own work, styles and themes. I don't think it's laziness, but more the client asking for something like their old stuff. It's not a crime to rip yourself off, but it is lazy and unchallenging.
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LD said 5:49PM on 1-23-2006
This is just a bit more than using the same "style and themes" though. It's absolutely identical.
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Tice said 5:54PM on 1-23-2006
Haha, finally someone who can laugh about this stupid battle. : ) No-one has lost anything. The Postal Service is selling more CDs than ever, the directors uhm well maybe they lost ... ; )
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bob said 6:37PM on 1-23-2006
Anyone seen the South Park episode "Simpsons did it", where Dr. Chaos tries to be original in his evil plots (Butters is like a wussy Ned Flanders).
Someone else has already done it, thought it up, dreamed it, saw it in a vision.
The question is can you make other poor suckers pay for what you realized before they did? (The answer to this is yes if you're Cartman)
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Chris said 7:43PM on 1-23-2006
Let it go!
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DM said 7:59PM on 1-23-2006
This isn't the first time either:
Depeche Mode Devotional Concert Projections (1993)
http://static.flickr.com/25/90440789_9289c9de19_m.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/21/90440320_f75029d048_m.jpg
U2 iPod ad (2003)
http://static.flickr.com/28/90441288_486afc4659_m.jpg
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DM said 8:03PM on 1-23-2006
try it again...
http://static.flickr.com/25/90440789_9289c9de19_m.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/21/90440320_f75029d048_m.jpg
U2 ad
http://static.flickr.com/28/90441288_486afc4659_m.jpg
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Mac Diva said 8:07PM on 1-23-2006
Why is it that people who know nothing about the law are always first in line to declare something a 'legal issue'? Hopefully, for the last time, the video and commercial are quite DISSIMILAR. The fact that the same directors were involved in both further negates any claim a certain deservedly obscure band might make against Apple Computer. The responsibility for using the same setting is theirs. However, I don't think the Postal Service has a claim against them, either. Its contract was fulfilled. I don't believe TPS would get very far trying to control the directors' subsequent creative decisions.
Frankly, I am amused that at least one person still thinks that the music in the commercial is by the Postal Service. Shows how little attention the naysayers actually pay to detail.
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LD said 10:26PM on 1-23-2006
MacDiva, your opinion about the law is laughable given your claims to have studied it. You clearly didn't understand current case law on the DMCA nor did you understand the linked Supreme Court case about reasonable searches in public schools...you didn't even read it.
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